EA eliminates printed manuals

As part of its environmental initiative, publisher Electronic Arts announced that digital manuals will replace printed ones in all titles shipping worldwide.

Printed game manuals have become a thing of the past for all Electronic Arts games. As part of a worldwide environmental initiative, the publisher today announced that digital manuals would replace the old paper ones in all titles shipping around the world. The move reportedly will result in a 40 percent reduction in printed materials in its packaged goods.

The new digital manuals will be on the game disc and be accessible both from the main menu and pause screens. One benefit to the new system is that players will be able to pull these manuals up on the screen without leaving the game, making it easy to get help. Full digital versions of the manuals, in multiple languages, will also be made available through a game manuals section on EA's support site.

While we can all appreciate the need to spare the environment, it's hard not to have at least a pang of nostalgia for the days of detailed manuals and the rest of the loot like cloth maps that came in the box. On the other hand, each of those Falcon 4.0 ring bound flight manuals probably took a birch or two to make.